VV(11): Fingernails

[jbor]

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>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>

> 
> Why discount such an obvious incongruity: there is no indication that they
> know each other in this segment.

The fact that they met and had an affair back in 1954, recounted in some
detail in the very first chapter of the novel, is certainly an indication,
isn't it? benny's "umbilical string is reconnected" at 217.10, which
connects with the "umbilical tug" at 29.30. Rachel's first words to him
("It's about time") express both her impatience and her self-assurance, and
indicate that she is fully aware of who he is.

> We have no idea who she is untill we see
> the nameplate.

The scene is narrated pretty much wholly from Benny's pov. I think that the
precise moment or process of Benny's recognition of her is hinted in that
subtle movement in his lustful fantasy, first framed in a hopeful, or
benign, gambling analogy: "[s]ix to one odds she drew me"; through the
sudden, and seemingly subconscious, switch to equating the situation to
Russian roulette, where the personal danger factor has mounted considerably;
finally to a complete 180-degree shift in his fate in the game of chance
which he has been parlaying in his mind: "Oh God, he thought, the loaded
chamber." (216) Though he wins he actually "loses" as well. The fact that
his erection subsides is another pointer that realisation of her identity
has come as a bit of a shock to ol' Ben, a somewhat mixed blessing at best.
The potential for Schadenfreude looms large here methinks.

> Even then Benny does not indicate any personal aquaintance,
> nor does Rachel.  And if you read it again you'll realize that Rachel
> arrives from the "outside corridor" and strolls through the reception area
> waving to her co-workers on the other side of the rail.  She walks right
> past Benny whose head is glued to her being.

That's correct. But I suspect that the way Benny "sees" Rachel when first
she walks into the office might be somewhat along these lines:

http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/739
bg.jpg

He looks at the receptionist in the same way, pretty much.

> If he knows her he is being incredibly cool, and so is she.

I think there is an incredible awkwardness in the situation, and that the
characters' responses ring true. Rachel takes charge of the meeting,
ignoring the obvious insult to her that Benny didn't recognise her
immediately, and she begins to "mother" him and boss him around as she does
with everyone it seems. Benny's cautiousness and clumsiness betray his
embarrassment, guilt, foreknowledge of what is bound to eventuate between
them, and the tension between lust and not wanting to commit which saw him
deliberately lose contact with Rachel in the first place.

That said, I don't discount others' interpretations about "alternate
universes" and the like, and enjoy reading them. I think that there is
definitely something in the Depression motifs which Terrance has been
gesturing at, though I agree with you that any real "argument" there still
remains to be made.

best